The Magister 3 Read online

  THE MAGISTER

  MAGICK IN HISTORY,

  THEORY & P RACTICE

  Volume 0: The Order of Revelation

  The Worker Enters the Workshop

  Part 3 of 3 parts on Kindle

  O.E.D. Neophyte Grade Material

  Publication in Class B

  FORGE PRESS

  Keswick, Cumbria, 2016

  www.westernesotericism.com

  Copyright © Frater V. (Marcus Katz) 2014, 2016.

  This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the author.

  Tarosophy® and Western Esoteric Initiatory System® are registered trademarks.

  First paperback edition published 2015 by Salamander and Sons.

  This Kindle edition and all further print editions published by Forge Press, authorized by the author to whom all rights belong to this work.

  This Kindle section includes a complete list of over 700 recommended reference books and links to essential material for your further study.

  Edited by Paul Hardacre & Marcus Katz.

  ALSO BY FRATER V. (MARCUS KATZ)

  The Path of the Seasons (Forge Press, forthcoming 2016)

  The Magician’s Kabbalah (Forge Press, 2015)

  NLP Magick (Forge Press, forthcoming 2016)

  Tarosophy: Tarot to Engage Life, Not Escape It (Forge Press, 2016)

  After the Angel (Forge Press, 2011)

  The Alchemy Workbook (Forge Press, 2008)

  The Zodiacal Rituals (Forge Press, 2008)

  Secrets of the Thoth Tarot (Forthcoming, 2016)

  Secrets of the Celtic Cross (Forthcoming, 2016)

  With Tali Goodwin

  Tarot Edge: Tarot for Teens and Young Adults (Forge Press, forthcoming 2016)

  Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2015)

  The English Lenormand (Forge Press, 2013)

  Tarot Life (in 12 books, Forge Press, 2013)

  Abiding in the Sanctuary: A. E. Waite’s Second Tarot (Forge Press, 2013)

  Learning Lenormand (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2013).

  Tarot Turn (in three volumes, Forge Press, 2012)

  Tarot Inspire (Forge Press, 2012)

  Tarot Face to Face (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2012)

  Around the Tarot in 78 Days (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2012)

  Tarot Twist (Forge Press, 2010)

  Tarot Flip (Forge Press, 2010)

  Easy Lenormand (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2015)

  I-Ching Counters (Forge Press/TGC, 2015)

  The Original Lenormand Deck (Forge Press/TGC, 2012)

  With Tali Goodwin, Sasha Graham (ed.), Giordano Berti, Mark McElroy, Riccardo Minetti & Barbara Moore.

  Tarot Fundamentals (Lo Scarabeo, 2015)

  Tarot Experience (Lo Scarabeo, forthcoming 2016)

  With Derek Bain & Tali Goodwin

  A New Dawn for Tarot: The Original Tarot of the Golden Dawn (Forge Press, 2015)

  As Andrea Green (with Tali Goodwin)

  True Tarot Card Meanings (Kindle, 2014)

  Tarot for True Romance (Kindle, 2014)

  Kabbalah & Tarot: A Step-up Guide (Kindle, 2015)

  Visit Author Sites for Complete Bibliography & Details

  www.marcuskatz.com

  www.taligoodwin.com

  For all Applications to the Crucible Club and Order of Everlasting Day

  www.westernesotericism.com

  Dedications

  This third section of Magister Vol. 0 on Kindle is dedicated to The Glitch Mob.

  And as ever, and above all, this book is spiritually dedicated to

  Antistita Astri Argentei

  The Priestess of the Silver Star

  She whose light leads the way to the Arcanum Arcanorum, the Secret of Secrets

  Vos Vos Vos Vos Vos

  V.V.V.V.V.

  In Memorium

  Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (1953-2012), for opening the door another degree.

  We will teach on the avenues and in gardens more perfect than we can imagine when the walls of the world have long fallen.

  When the fruit of my tree

  Shall be quite melted down

  Then I shall awake

  And be the mother of a King.

  Christian Rosencreutz, The Hermetic Romance:

  or, The Chymical Wedding (1616)[1]

  “I’ll read the Rosicrucian manifestoes.”

  “But you said the manifestoes were fake,” Belbo said.

  “So? What we’re putting together is fake.”

  “True,” he said, “I was forgetting that.”

  Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum[2]

  Table of Contents

  In the Shadow of the Bright Circle

  Strange Prisoners

  Naturphilosophie and Jung, the Development of the Unconscious

  The Nancy School and the Technique of Suggestion

  The Golden Dawn and the Development of the Self

  Dion Fortune and Israel Regardie, Psychoanalysts and Magicians

  Israel Regardie: The Sage of Sedona

  Dion Fortune: Priestess of the Soul

  Contemporary Syntheses of Psychology and Magic

  The Oath of Harpocrates

  Flying Roll XIII on Secrecy and Hermetic Love

  Sermons Through Stones: The Secret Masters

  No Man Hath Seen me Unveiled

  Considerations on the Division of the Soul

  Vignette: The Goddess of Sais

  The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel

  The Sacred Magic of Abramelin

  The Holy Guardian Angel

  Vignette: 13 Dancing Girls on a Wednesday

  The Angel and the Higher Self

  On the Egregore

  The Abyss

  Vignette: The Cube of Undoing

  The Fourth Way Work

  The Kundabuffers

  Watching for Kundabuffers

  The Initiatory Tarot.

  The Three Decks

  The Mystery of the Monogram

  The World

  The Fool

  The Blasted Tower

  The High Priestess

  Your Magical Journal and Dream Diary

  Optional Journal Practices

  The Dreaming Mind

  Zosimos of Panopolis

  The Vision of Zosimos

  The Seven Steps Contemplation

  Optional Dream Practices

  The Fountain of Morpheus (An Initiated Method of Dream Recall)

  Hand Observation for Lucid Dreaming

  The Dream Journal: Liber Somniorum

  The Magical Name

  The Purpose and Nature of the Magickal Name

  Salutations, Forms and Greetings

  Formal Framing in the Order of Everlasting Day

  Selected List of Magical Names and Mottos

  The Rituals and Practices

  Liber Resh (Solar Adoration)

  Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura CC

  Commentary & Practice

  Vignette: Airport Adoration

  Liber Qoph vel Lunae

  The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.

  Notes Prior to Commencing the Practice

  The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram

  Visualisations.

  The Self in Relationship (Middle Pillar)

  Notes Prior to Commencing the Practice

  The Middle Pillar Method

  Circulation of the Light

  The Peace Profound of the Rose Cross and Key

  The Rose Cross Ritual

  The Opening of the Golden Dawn into the Ever
lasting Day

  The Opening of the Everlasting Day

  The Rituals of the Sapphire Temple

  1. Kether: The Ritual of the Altar and the Lamp.

  2. Chockmah: The Ritual of the Circle and Candle.

  3. Binah: The Ritual of the Temple and Triangle.

  4. Chesed: The Ritual of the Square.

  5. Geburah: The Ritual of the Incense and the Pentagram.

  6. Tiphareth: The Ritual of the Pillars and the Rose.

  7. Netzach: The Ritual of the Oath.

  8. Hod: The Ritual of the Crystal.

  9. Yesod: The Ritual of the Treasure-House.

  10. Malkuth: The Ritual of Binding Together.

  11. The Kingdom Ritual.

  The Oath of the Tarot Majors

  Conclusion

  Frequently Asked Questions

  Reading Outline

  Part One: General Reading

  Part Two: A Magical Curriculum

  Bibliography

  In the Shadow of the Bright Circle

  “You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.”

  — Glaucon to Plato, ‘The Allegory of the Cave’ (The Republic, Book VII)

  Strange Prisoners

  We start this final section of the Magister Volume 0 on Kindle by looking at the relationship between psychology and esotericism. We then move on to more practical matters with magical rituals, exercises and ceremonies, having laid out in detail the development of our curriculum and these psychological aspects.

  This chapter surveys the historical relationship between psychology and the Western esoteric tradition from the naturphilosophie of the 1800s to contemporary manifestations of psychology in modern occultism. We first examine the development of the idea of the unconscious from the work of Schelling, Carus and Jung. Then we trace the self-development concerns of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In a case study of Dion Fortune and Israel Regardie we see an explicit synthesis of psychology and occultism. Then we will conclude by reviewing a number of contemporary manifestations of this synthesis.

  Plato’s analogy of the cave serves throughout both as metaphor for the human state and as common ground between psychology and the Western esoteric tradition. In both cases it is assumed that there is an apparent reality, but that this is cast as a shadow – on the wall of our perceptions – from a reality that is initially occulted. In this, both psychology and esotericism return to a primarily Gnostic concern – that of the ‘great ignorance’[3] of our own nature and that of the universe of which we are part. Psychology and esotericism set out to explore the darkness outside of our knowledge, whether it be dwelling in the ‘unconscious’ or the ‘astral’, the mundus imaginalis or the dark side of the Tree of Life.

  Dion Fortune, whose life and work we shall examine further, wrote:

  As soon as I touched the deeper aspects of practical psychology and watched the dissection of the mind under psycho-analysis, I realised that there was very much more in the mind than was accounted for by the accepted psychological theories. I saw that we stood in the centre of a small circle of light thrown by accurate scientific knowledge, but around us was a vast, circumambient sphere of darkness, and in that darkness dim shapes were moving. It was in order to understand the hidden aspects of the mind that I originally took up the study of occultism.[4]

  In this small circle of light, surrounded by darkness, we are, as Plato says, “strange prisoners” and psychology and esotericism both seek the keys to our escape and redingreation.[5]

  Indeed, the writer Philip K. Dick’s Gnostic concept of a ‘black iron prison’, the ‘unredeemed world of everyday consciousness’,[6] is a chilling re-statement of our predicament as are the monstrous tales of H. P. Lovecraft, to which we will return.

  The tools of our escape are common again to both psychology and esotericism: willed imagination leading – through symbols – to self-knowledge, initiation into increasingly comprehensive world-views through release of limiting attachments and beliefs, tested through experience in the crucible of self-awareness.

  As we will see in this section, the Gnostic concerns remain consistent throughout the history of both psychology and esotericism; the quest for self-knowledge is primary. As we read in The Apocryphon of James, “I tell you this so that you may know yourself.”[7]

  Naturphilosophie and Jung, the Development of the Unconscious

  We will first highlight the concerns of naturphilosophie, specifically those which came to inform the work of Carl Carus and, in turn, shape the esoteric leanings of Carl Gustav Jung. The general scope of this school of thought is a significant template and could be considered an essential in which to cultivate ideas of self-development.

  According to Faivre, “Jung may be considered as the last major representative of naturphilosophie,”[8] a specific current of thought developed towards the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th, particularly in Germany. This philosophy, synthesising extant thinking ranging from Christian theosophy to animal magnetism, drew also from French naturalism, the metaphysics of Kant and Fichte, and Spinozan philosophy. Out of these streams flowed a single river of thinking, encompassing the concepts of:

  Nature having a history of a mythical order, i.e. the world is engaged in a process of a highly dramatic character – see ‘The Alchemical Amphitheatre’ in this present work for a discussion of the relationship of this ontological position with recent advances in quantum physics, as depicted in Louise B. Young’s The Unfinished Universe;

  The ‘philosophy of identity’ (viz. Schelling), i.e. the relationship of Nature and spirit, that spirit becomes Nature, and Nature becomes spiritualised. This relationship speaks to contemporary ecological concerns, and at the time underpinned the research of naturphilosophen Baader, Schubert and Kerner in mesmerism, animal magnetism and dreams;

  Nature is a living net of correspondences to be deciphered and integrated into a holistic worldview.

  Although after about 60 years this current faded away during the 1850s, naturphilosophie left a legacy in both its approach and its constellation of concerns to later esoteric thinkers such as Rudolf Steiner and Carl Jung. More importantly, the concept of the unconscious represents the historical origin of psychoanalysis, leading from works such as Carl Carus’ Psyche: Entwicklungsgeschite der Seele (or, Psyche: The Developmental History[9] of the Soul, 1846) and Schubert’s Die Symbolik des Traums (or, Symbolism of Dreams, 1814).

  Carus developed the idea of the unconscious in the naturphilosophie framework, in a position James Hillman refers to as psychological idealism, avoiding the contextualisation of psychology as empirical science or idealism as philosophical metaphysics (Kant, Fichte, Hegel).[10] He further wrote, “The light of consciousness shines – in a manner to be discussed later – and illuminates the area within us. Light makes us aware of the darkness of the night.”[11] It is to illuminate this darkness – the unconscious – that we require techniques to encourage self-knowledge and improvement of the self to fulfil its place in the ‘mythic history’ of Nature.[12]

  The Nancy School and the Technique of Suggestion

  In addition to the emergence of the idea of the unconscious, the technique of suggestion, arising from Mesmer’s work with ‘animal magnetism’, is a primary thread crossing between esoteric thought and psychology. The notion of magical influence, strengthening the Will, and developing the conscious mind by suggesting concepts – via verbalisation or symbology – to the unconscious through imagination, underpin many methods of both schools.

  This relationship is clearly seen when, for example, discussing self-suggestion, the author and physician Edwin Ash, writes in 1906, “There can be no more powerful means of backing up and rendering efficacious simple suggestion than by a religious ceremony.”[13]

  The development of self-suggestion follows Mesmer, with the colourful character Abbé Faria (actually José Custódio de Faria, 1746- 1819), who took Mesmer’s initial work and brought to it a scientific viewpo
int, soon dismissing the theory of ‘animal magnetism’ and introducing the idea of suggestion as the primary actor in the process. It was this work that Ambroise-Auguste Liébault (1823-1904) built upon as he founded the Nancy School in the city of Nancy in 1866.

  Hippolyte Bernheim, a professor from the University of Nancy, and at first a doubter of the techniques being employed at the School, to treat digestion, health and circulation ailments, joined the School where he conducted clinics with Liébault.[14] Bernheim was instrumental in overturning the previously held notion of hypnosis as a hysteria-like state, as was held by Charcot.

  Both Émile Coué and Sigmund Freud visited the Nancy School.[15] Coué (1857-1926) was a French psychologist and pharmacist who is now known as the father of applied conditioning. He learned hypnosis from Liébault and went on to found the Lorraine Society of Applied Psychology. He modified Faria’s original concept of suggestion, and proposed that autosuggestion could be self-induced, leading to self-conditioning.

  His enduring legacy is the mantra, “Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better” (tous les jours a tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux). This is now known as the Coué method, and was further developed by Johannes Schultz as autogenic training. This mantra-like technique is one further developed in the esoteric tradition, although intensified by ritual activity and the presentation of symbols to the initiate.

  The Golden Dawn and the Development of the Self

  Having examined the world-view of naturphilosophie and the techniques of the Nancy School, we will now turn to arguably the most influential ‘jewel’ in the crown of Victorian esotericism, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This ‘strange attractor’ of academics, Freemasons, artists, playwrights, poets, and dilettantes established a synthetic modus operandi of human development in the wake of naturphilosophie, but very much in the same contextual framework. Its techniques used the heightened expectation (a key determinant of success in hypnotic induction) of ritual initiation, willed self-suggestion of symbolism in the imagination, keyed to complex correspondences, and a structured map of self-development based on the kabbalistic Tree of Life and the degrees of Freemasonry.